The New South Wales government has released the first stage of its net-zero emissions by 2030 climate change strategy, with the launch of $900 million plan for action, and two additional Renewable Energy Zones in the state.
State energy minister Matt Kean said the NSW Berejeklian government’s commitment to an interim emissions target of a 35 per cent cut to emissions by 2030, based on 2005 levels was “firmly grounded in science and economics” and not ideology.
The new plan will use $450 million from the state’s existing Climate Change Fund, matched by an additional $450 million from the federal government’s Climate Solutions Fund, for the creation of an Emissions Intensity Reduction Program, to support an economy-wide shift to lower emissions technologies and practices.
The funds will be used to drive the state-wide uptake of emissions reduction technologies, the use of sustainable products, private investment in new emissions reduction innovations – with the NSW government leading by example.
“This Plan recognises that, in parts of our economy, low emissions technologies are becoming a commercially viable alternative to the traditional ways of doing things,” the plan says.
“Almost two-thirds of the private investment under the plan will go to regional and rural NSW, creating job opportunities and diversifying local economies that are doing it tough after the drought and devastating bushfire season,” Kean added.
